How to Format a memory card with the Samsung Wave

 For this guide I'll be showing you how to format the memory card for a Samsung Wave. The phone it's self accepts either a MicroSD or a MicroSDHC memory card up to 16GB but the guide for formatting them is the same for both memory cards. You are advised by the manual for format them this way as doing it through a computer can cause incompatibility issues.

As with all the guides for the phone we'll start the home screen which looks something like this. If you have a settings widget you can cut out a few stages though we'll go the long way and start by pressing the menu button

 After pressing the menu button you will bring up a menu similar to this one. From here you want to click on the "Settings" icon which is in the bottom left hand corner and looks like a cog. In this image it's directly above "Keypad". This will open a long list of options for you to tinker with.

What you need to do on this screen is scroll down to the one that looks like a Pie Chart and is called "Memory". It's about 3/4 of the way to the bottom of the phone and is in a section which includes "Reset", "About Phone" and "Security".

 If you actually have a memory card in the phone you will see these options (if no memory card is present the first option won't actually show on this screen). It's the first option that was need to click on as it's the memory card we want to be formatting and not the phone's memory (which can be done via the bottom option of this menu).

 After clicking on the "Memory card details" screen you will see a screen similar to this. The details may be different (for example you might have named your memory card or it may have different numbers). If you look in the bottom left you will see a small button that says "Format", this is the button you need to click on.

After pressing "Format" you will see this screen. If you want to format you should click yes. Before you do this stage make sure if the card has ANYTHING on it that you want to keep, back it up before you format it. If you press "No" and go back you will be able to back up and copy the data on the card to either the phones internal memory on a computer. Remember anything on the card when it's formatted WILL be deleted.!

After this the card will be set up perfectly for your phone and for you to put music on it or use it to store your photographs. Now when you connect the phone to a computer you can click "Mass storage" to access the memory as well as "DRM media" to access the phones internal memory.

How do you clear the chat logs from a Samsung Wave?

 This guide for deleting chat logs begins at the home screen which looks something like this by default (though can be made to look very different depending on what you've done to the phone to personalise it). Whilst on this screen you need to press the "Dial key". The "Dial key" is the soft key on the left of the phone under the touch screen and is shown on page 19 of the of the phones manual.

 You will end up with a screen a bit like this (with out the black marks which have been used to hide numbers of the innocent). This will be a log of the calls and texts you've received. If you've saved the numbers as a contact their name will be displayed here (as seen by Vodafone) otherwise the number will show up. From here we want to click clear in the bottom left hand corner.

 After selecting clear this screen will pop up and you can either select them individually or select them all. You pick which option suits you, in this case I'll be deleting them all so I'll click on the "Select all" option near the top of the screen.

After selecting all, each of the boxes will get a blue tick in them to say they've been selected. If we click "Clear" again it will delete all of the selected numbers and names so you can clear your call log. The function of this is relatively limited though some folk don't like having a log whilst others just don't see the point in having one, though it can also stop you from accidentally calling someone back, which I'm sure we've all done at least once.

HTC and the effects

 Staying on the aspect of photography and the HTC Wildfire's camera I've had a short and quick play with the various effects on the phone. Some of the effects are far more fun to use than others though I'll assume they each have their own function at times. Lets have a look at the pictures taken with the setting, they are all of the same fruit bowl placed in the same place just for comparison purposes.

This was the picture taken with out any effects on. This allows us all to see what the image "should" look like. Although, as with all the pictures on this site, it's not perfect it's here only for comparison purposes.

This is the image taken in taken in "Grayscale" and as you can see the colour has been completely drained out of the image in what is referred to as being taken in "black and white". This can be a great effect if used properly and when used in portraits it can make peoplem even me, look rather good.

"Sepia" turns things brown, it can be one of the more useful effects and can give a good aging feel to pictures. In the case of this setting it's not very useful though in some scenarios it's the best option to give the photograph some real character.

"Negative" looks something like this, it "flips" the colours, or if you rather it "inverts" them. The pictures taken this way can look rather cool (a picture taken at the very end of this article shows off some of the ability of a negative). The inverted colours can be pretty awesome though if used cleverly and a better photographer can really take some amazing pictures using the effect.

"Solarize" changes the photographs colours by inverting them in a different way to "Negative" although it's difficult to really explain by someone like myself all you need to really know is that it can give some great effects or some worrying effects. Looking at the oranges in this picture it looks like the oranges are rotting due to the effect.

"Posterize" is a funny effect that never really seems to look particularly great. The idea behind it is that the it makes tone really stand out from each other and is an incredibly artistic tool. In all honesty most folks just wanting to take general photos should avoid it as it rarely sees a novice photographer taking anything better than wasted shots.

This is the phones final effect and one called "Aqua". It gives the sense that photograph was taken in water and adds a blue tint to photographs. In this example it doesn't really add to the photograph though as with all the effects it can be used in the right scenario to great effect. If you like playing with effects this really could be one of the most interesting ones.

This was an image taken with the negative setting and was taken just to show off how cool the setting can be. It's inverted the colours to brilliant effect and used the images on the TV to give a pretty impressive scene. The lighting on the consoles have been reversed and on the whole this really is a fantastic little example of how good the negative effects are.

Sony Ericsson Shots

After yesterdays fun with the Fruit bowl I've gone Barmy with a bottle. These photos were all taken with a Sony Ericsson C902, like the Samsung Wave it has a 5 Mega-Pixel with a number of options to use and play with. Unlike last nights pictures these were mostly taken in good lighting with multiple bright lights rather than 1 pretty poor lamp. The photographs are of 3 different things, first a “Brahma” beer bottle on the living room floor, “Brahma” bottle on the table and thirdly of a cup of tea in the Kitchen. All 3 sets of images allow you to see different things and some of the pictures are significantly better than others.
 

 Out of the 3 "Tea" pictures taken (only 2 have been used) this was the best, the colours were the nearest to being true. Although detailed enough to read the writing on the microwave you can make out the reflections on the worktop and the crumbs. The detail, all not amazing is pretty decent

 For some reason the colours seemed to be drained out of this photograph. Although it has a similar amount of detail the colours being dark and murky have taken much of the life out of the image. The shadows on the doors do show up better but on the whole the image just feels lifeless in comparison to the one above. Although I'm not 100% sure on the difference I have a feeling this was taken with out the flash on.

 This one of the bottle on the floor is far from perfect though it's gotten most of the colours right, especially the carpet and the bottle. What it's done though has smudged the lighting on the BT Vision box (the Blue light under the TV). Overall it's good for the foreground though seems to have blurred the background slightly.

 This one is very similar to the one above though worse, the red light on the DVD player and the Blue light on the BT Vision box are both heavily blurred and the TV image, although visible also looks terrible in regards to the colours. The Focus seems almost certainly to have been set to the foreground (Auto) due to the way it's made the background look fuzzy.

 This one manages to make the lights in the background look sharper though they seem to "stretch" instead of blur. The quality and colours on the foreground are all pretty much the same as above with only the lighting in the background being of any major difference.

Out of the "Beer bottle on the floor" pictures this appears to be the best of them. Th colours in the forground are at their best and even the lights in the background are bright, sharp and they haven't been blurred like in many of the above pictures. It was almost certainly taken with light mode, which improves the quality of a photograph, though this has meant that the camera was left on the floor and as a result missed the TV from the image.

This one genuinely surprised me, it was taken with VGA quality and yet ends up looking like a pretty decent photo. If you try to blow it up though it really pixelates and is one of the photographs that should be kept at smaller sizes. The way it's picked up the reflection of the TV really shocked me as well, the reflect actually looks better than the TV.

This is probably my favourite picture from this bunch. The reflection of the TV is billiant, the details at the foreground are pretty good (not amazing though) though for it has overly brightened the wood on the mantle piece. The lights under the TV aren't particularly blurry either (they have a slight blur to them but nothing major).

This has significantly darkened the colours from the above picture and the result is that the lights in the background do look much, much crisper. The shadows on the table are a little bit over the top and the photograph is good but not great.

This one is probably the best overall, a look at the desk makes the items much easier to see (glasses, charger, lamp, another cell phone, a house phone, keys and packet) the background lights have only a little blurring and the reflection is picked up brilliantly. Again not a perfect picture but it's me taking them, not someone who knows what they are actually doing.

Time saving tricks for the Samsung Wave

We all like to save time so now I'm going to show you a few quick tricks to save a few seconds whilst using the Samsung Wave, many of the tricks are also possible on other Samsung mobiles. None of these are particularly amazing though they will help you save a small amount of time which can add up if you use the phone a lot.

We start by looking at the quick method of opening the task manager. If you want to open the task manager the "normal" way you need to go through a number of menu screens which can take quite a while and is incredibly fiddly. If you just go to the home screen and hold the "menu key" for a few seconds you jump straight to the task managed saving yourself the time and effort of going through the settings screens. In fact this takes about 3 seconds and is very direct.

The other method of finding the task manager is following this small guide:
Menu>Setting>About Phone>System info>CPU>Task Manager
So as you can see this short cut is much better.

This is a trick most users should already be well aware of but if not it's worth sharing. This little menu you can see is just a drag down menu from the top of the screen and by dragging it down you can turn on, or off, the Wi-Fi, the Bluetooth and Silent mode. This is great for when you just need to turn off something like Wi-Fi to save the battery or turn the volumne off to go into a meeting. 

Each of these 3 settings can be turned on or off through the various menu's though the fact you can do them all here is much quicker and easier than fiddling with a host of multiple screens.



 This final time saving trick takes a little while to set up so I've broken it into the steps you need to use for it to work. It's a trick that some folks will find of more use than others, though if you use the phone for one thing a lot it will be a good trick to learn. Firstly you need to open the "Menu" then click settings and "General" which puts you on this screen here. The you need to select "Gestures" from this screen.



In "Gestures" you will see a screen like this. The option you want to set it "Double tapping" and make sure that a little light is showing next to it as this is what we are wanting to use. After you click on the dot to put the light on you need to click where it says "Double tapping" to open a long list of options.

 The options screen should look something like this (though it has a lot more options than were caught on this screen shot) you need to select the option you want to use. In the case of this example it's going to be "Music" as I like to use my phone to listen to music so it's a good short cut for myself. Others may want to use it to skip to the camera, or the games or soemthing else.

By double tapping the screen on the homepage I'm now zoomed straight to my music and ready to listen to all my tracks with out needing to go through the menu screens. This is a great little trick though one that you need to really use the phone a fair bit to make the most of.

Although this trick does take a little whilst to set up it's pay off in the long run is great and really is a trick you should be using if you want to use the phone for all it's worth.




Of course the phone will have more time saving tricks though these are some of the best ones and easiest ones so are worth using and knowing that they are all there to use.

A little bit of a playing with the Samsung Wave Camera

I've had a very quick play with the camera of the phone and taken some photographs of the room I was where I was sat whilst writing a small beginners guide to using the camera function. These photographs aren't supposed to be masterpieces but are just to try and show the differences between what the Camera CAN do and how bad some photographs are with the phone. IF you know what you are doing (not that I actually do) you can take some fantastic pictures. These have just been taken with various settings to see the differences between a good photo taken with the correct settings and those taken with "bad" settings.

Terrible photo that was taken with a "macro" focus and the lowest resolution. As you can see it looks blurry and just not particularly good. This is a bad photo example we are using and one that was used in the article linked to above. The problems extend much deeper than the blurring effects, just look at the TV in the background to show the problems with this image.

Although this needs to be perhaps darkened slightly it's a much better picture of the same thing as the above picture. Whilst it's not ideal (remember this is me taking the photograph) you have gotten a much crisper image, if you view the image in full size you can visible see the lines on the table and the lights on the DVD player under the TV. As well as the difference in sharpness you can also make out the image on the TV and the cup is white instead of an off-white "dirty" colour.

When blown up this picture is strikingly blurry and that was due to making a really small movement when using night mode. The image although looks "acceptable" when viewed in a small image really doesn't look good at all when blown up and the blurriness really comes out. The features of the "Night" scene is that the picture takes a while to take and is high quality, though movement really blurs images.

 This is essentially a very similar picture to the one above though with out the phone being moved at all. The blurring is gone and it's incredibly smooth and crisp. Sadly with using the "Night" scene and needing to hold the camera still it had to be rested on the floor (hence the slight change in angle from the image above). "Night" scene really does increase the quality of a picture though if used properly.

This was taken with slightly different settings and as a result it lost some of the colour quality of the picture above. Whilst it's still "acceptable" it's not as good as the really good night mode one above. Again it's a crisp image though the colours are a little too bright.

This is an odd picture, I do rather like it for the way it shows the rotting orange off and the carpet looks "almost" right. Though it's focused very heavily on the foreground and as a result really neglects the background and looks darker than it should do. I class this as a good photograph though it's the qualities it has rather than anything technical that makes me like it.

 This is pretty much the opposite of the picture above. It shows the background well though the fruit and the fruit bowl are really bad amd dark. I dislike this one despite the fact it does show some of the background features. The problem is that the whole photograph is just too dark and the fruit is really terrible.

This one is simply too bright on the oranges and has overly brightened the carpet. The dark colours on the carpet "should" look rather deep red and instead they look really bright red and the even the rotting orange looks like it could just have been from the flash. Really terrible picture in terms of lighting even if it is relatively sharp.

This one was taken using the "macro" focus, and as you can see it's just blurry and horrific. Out of the "Orange bowl" pictures this is my least favourite as it's blurry, the colours are generally hit and miss and it's a just not very good.

This one is quite possibly the best of the photographs as it's got both the foreground and background looking good and the carpet, although not perfect is pretty accurate. The oranges don't overly reflect the flash and on the whole it's a pretty decent photograph for a complete amateur.

 This is a really poor picture, it almost looks as if it was taken in black and white (though it wasn't) and the colours just seem to be drained out of the image. It's an interesting one in regards of this blog entry though had it not been for this blog it'd have been deleted instantly.

This is probably the best one from a technical view point, the colours are all spot on and the image is crisp, true and sharp. Although not my favourite picture it is a solid image and really show off the ability of the camera. It's a photo that should be zoomed into to really see why it's the best image out of the orange ones.




Although it's pretty obvious I'm not a photographer these have all been taken with the same phone and you can see the vast difference between images from just playing with the settings. If you're a good photographer you will be able to get some very decent photographs out of the phone by using the right settings.

Samsung Wave

It's been ages since I last posted on to this blog and I've since had a pretty fun play with a Samsung Wave GT-S723e. The things I've learnt from this phone have been put into a number of hubs for Hubpages which I'll link you to through out this piece.

The Samsung Wave I have is currently with Vodafone in the UK on some special 24 months offer with unlimited texts and 300 minutes for a nice price though the phone it's self isn't anything brilliant it's ok for what it is. The phone runs the "BADA" software which when compared to things like Android, Windows and iOS seems relatively limited. Despite this the handset is easy to use and the touchscreen is pretty accurate and works well. The battery can last a while and you can of course use a bunch of tricks to stretch out the phones battery life which aew pewtty simple and painless.

The phone has a solid 5MP camera which although not brilliant does take some pretty decent photos and are incredibly easy to transfer to a computer with out too much effort. Though admittedly I've not really played with the camera enough to work out how good it actually is. In all honesty it does seem slightly better than the HTC Wildfire's camera though not as good as the Sony Ericcson C902 one (the three phones I have for comparison at the moment).

As with all modern phones you can easily put your music on to the phone and of course select your own tracks as a ringtone. With out a memory card you are pretty limited to a handful of songs or photographs. The memory card you will be needing if you purchase the phone is a Micro SD card which can come in some hefty sizes and are afforable (though not "cheap" per se).

As with all modern phones there is a real depth to how far you can explore the phone but you will still be surprised by the depth of the handset and the fact there is a real wealth of secrets. I sadly didn't find some of them out until it was too late, though here is a heads up on some of them to allow you to do things like "Screenshots" and factory resetting the handset.

On the whole the phone is a "decent" handset but not a particularly great one. If you want to be up to date this isn't the phone for you though it's a steady handset for those who aren't too big on multi-tasking. It does all the basic things well such as making calls, playing music, allowing you to use the net (via either 3G or Wi-fi), texting, photography, being an alarm but it doesn't do the advance things. Don't look to this phone to be a mobile office or to be a replacement to your Nintendo DS as it's not that kind of device, it's a phone first and foremost with some bonus'.